Help With Toasting Oats

Gearing up to brew a 1 gallon test batch of This.

I tried to toast my oats last night but DISASTER.

I soaked them in warm water for about an hour, they absorbed most of it, so I poured off the excess and then spread them out about 1inch thick on a glass baking dish (aluminium ones were dirty) and threw the oven on at 350.
After 2 and a half HOURS there was no change in colour. I took them out and stirred them only to find that they had hardened in places, and were still completely soaked in others.

So I did what all impatient brewers do, I turned the broiler on high to see what would happen.

I now have a pound of oats that (split 50/50) are either burnt completely or not changed in colour at all.

What do I do?
Try again with a different method?
Can I use these oats after wafting them for a week, or will they give the beer a horrible taste?

If your using instant oatmeal you can just use then as they are just go ahead and steep them. OR. If you want to toast them just spread them on a cookie sheet and roast them at 350 for 45 minutes stirring every 15 minutes. No need to soak them. I use old fashion oats and toast them this way and works very well.

The mistake was spreading them too thick in a glass dish. When toasting oats, I make sure they are never more than half an inch thick. BrewerinBR, the soaking does actually make a difference--the flavor they develop is more cookie-like and less harsh, based on my experiments.

For the oats you already have, can you post a pic of how burnt they are? You can probably get away with wafting them, but it'll take more like 3 weeks.

Thanks guys!
I'll post a pic of the oats when I get home, hopefully they are salvageable!

I want the oats to contribute to the colour of the beer as well as the flavour, hence the darker roast than usual (looking for a stout colour, and I dont think the candi sugar is going to give enough)

In my experience, a few pounds of very dark-roasted oats does not seem to contribute nearly the same amount of color as the same amount of dark candi syrup. Candi syrup is definitely necessary to get the dark color of a stout (and it gets DARK, believe me! The No-Nonsense Stout has never been accused of having too light of a color, I can tell you that!).

Also, when toasting oats in the oven, it's important to stir them regularly--that is the only way the moisture will evaporate and actually let them toast. I stir every 10 minutes or so.

Here's what I've got right now
Useable?

When I toasted rolled oats, I didn't soak them. I spread 1 pound per cookie sheet, at 350 degrees. It took 2 or 3 hours to toast to a medium brown. No stirring, no burning, fairly consistent throughout.

I dunno if those are useable. They look pretty scorched, even wafting may not be enough to mellow. I'd give it another go; at only 1 gallon, you only need to toast about 1/3 of a pound.

igliashon said:

I dunno if those are useable. They look pretty scorched, even wafting may not be enough to mellow. I'd give it another go; at only 1 gallon, you only need to toast about 1/3 of a pound.

Click to expand...

I thought from the recipe you recommended a pound of oats per gallon?
Thanks for having a look at my failure!

No, the original recipe used 1 pound of oats per 3 gallons, and that version was much better than the more recent version I tried where I subbed half rice syrup for the sorghum and increased the oats to 1.5 pounds. I had some ideas about how to improve it, but they're untested, and the original was very good. I'd recommend sticking to the original to start off.

I would toast them at 300, and check them every 15 minutes stirring them around.

igliashon said:

No, the original recipe used 1 pound of oats per 3 gallons, and that version was much better than the more recent version I tried where I subbed half rice syrup for the sorghum and increased the oats to 1.5 pounds. I had some ideas about how to improve it, but they're untested, and the original was very good. I'd recommend sticking to the original to start off.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll do that then!

MUCH more successful roast!

There are three little oats in the middle just to show you the original colour. These things look awesome!

Thanks for the help guys!

Look really nice man. From the picture they look a little like Coco Pebbles. I want some now. Haha

Looking good!